Background

The City of San Benito is responsible for providing water and wastewater services to its residents. Because of recent population increases both the water and wastewater systems present various deficiencies. The water treatment plant exceeded its maximum permitted treatment capacity of 5.97 million gallons a day (MGD) in July 2000, and the wastewater treatment plant was in violation of its treatment parameters for biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and total suspended solids (TSS) from June through December 2000. In addition, the city does not comply with Texas regulations for water storage capacity.

Therefore, San Benito is proposing a major improvements project to increase its water and wastewater treatment capacity, as well as its treated drinking water storage capacity.

Description

The project is divided into three components which be carried out in two
phases over a period of 23 years.

I. Water Treatment Plant (WTP)
Construction of a new 10 MGD water treatment plant, which will effectively double the city’s water treatment capacity. A 6 MGD WTP will be constructed in the first phase, and will be expanded to the full 10 MGD capacity in the second phase.

II. Water Storage Tank
Construction of a 1,000,000 gallon elevated storage tank and a water transmission line to transport treated water from the new plant to the storage facilities.

III. Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP)
Construction of a new 3.5 MGD wastewater treatment plant that will be used in conjunction with the existing lagoon system. The new WWTP will be constructed adjacent to the existing plant with a plant capacity of 2.5 MGD in its first phase.

Benefits

With this project San Benito will have sufficient water treatment and storage capacity to meet demand and comply with Texas state regulations through 2025. In addition, the effluent generated by the WWTP will meet established standards of quality.